By The Numbers: Diversity During the Fall/Winter 2018 Fashion Shows

Anok Yai opens the Fall/Winter 2018 Prada show at New York Fashion Week (The Independent UK)

Anok Yai opens the Fall/Winter 2018 Prada show at Milan Fashion Week (The Independent UK)

Diversity in the fashion industry has been a hot-button topic for some time. Diversity in fashion shows has been a large part of that discussion. Fortunately, “The Fashion Spot” tracks this and keeps the industry accountable. The site puts the findings in a report and releases them to the public.

Here’s what “The Fashion Spot” found for diversity on the runway for the Fall/Winter 2018 fashion shows:

New York had the most racially-diverse models, ahead of London, Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks.
Nonwhite models comprised 37%+ of models for New York Fashion Week. This was just a .4% increase from last year.
7 designers had fashion shows that were 62%+ diverse.
33 transgender women and non-binary models walked in shows this year.
Plus-size models comprised 1%+ of all models.
There were 9 models aged 50+. This is down from 10 the year before.

#ThrowbackThursday: Liu Wen Walks the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, 2009

Liu Wen walks the 2009 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (Zimbio)

I’ll be honest: Sometimes my posts are born from a random thought. This post comes from my Googling to find out who the first Asian supermodel was. This led me to Liu Wen, whom The New York Times called the “first Asian supermodel” in 2012.

Three years before The Grey Lady bestowed that moniker, Liu walked in the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. She was the first Asian model to do so. That’s hardly the only first Liu has racked up throughout her career: She’s also the first East Asian model to be a face for Estee Lauder, cover American Vogue in 2017 and make Forbes‘ annual list of highest-paid models. (Liu ranked #5 on Forbes’ list in 2013 with $4.3M.)

Actress Claire Foy Will Receive $275K in Salary Back Pay for “The Crown”

Claire Foy in ‘The Crown’ (HelloGiggles)

Within the past few years, pay inequality continues to be a reoccurring topic. Now some companies are finally stepping up and doing something about it.

It had been previously reported that actress Claire Foy was paid significantly less for her work on the Netflix series “The Crown” than her co-star Matt Smith. This error is made more egregious by the fact that Foy plays the title character Queen Elizabeth II. (Smith plays her husband Prince Philip.) The thinking behind the pay disparity was that Smith was more well-known from his work on “Doctor Who.”

Foy is now slated to receive salary backpay to make up for this not-so-small slight. She’ll receive $275K in backpay. We don’t know for sure whether this completely makes up the wage gap between Foy and Smith: Foy’s salary per episode has been previously reported, but Smith’s never has.

Left Bank, the production company responsible for “The Crown,” has since issued this mandate:

“Going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen.”

Damn right.

1 Out of 9 Men Have Oral HPV

Human Papillomavirus Type 16 (University of Washington National STD Curriculum)

We’ve all heard about human papillomavirus (HPV). But there’s one instance where HPV affects more men than women.

According to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, oral HPV occurs much more often in men than women. The study examined data pulled from the “National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2011 to 2014,” and found that 1 out of every 9 men have oral HPV. This translates to 11M men in the U.S.

Oral HPV is much more rare for women: The study discovered that only 3.2% of women had the infection. This percentage translates to 3.2M women. (By comparison, cervical cancer affects 12.8M+ of women.)

38K+ new cases of cancers related to HPV were diagnosed between 2008-2012. These cancers were diagnosed in 59% of men and 41% of women.

“Pansexual” Was Merriam-Webster’s Most-Searched Term After Janelle Monae Came Out

Janelle Monae (Amazon Music)

Last week, Rolling Stone published an interview with musician Janelle Monae, pegged to the release of her new album “Dirty Computer.” This interview proved significant because, after years of dancing around the subject of her sexuality, Monae actually came out.

In Monae’s own words:

“Being a queer black woman in America,” she says, taking a breath as she comes out, “someone who has been in relationships with both men and women – I consider myself to be a free-ass motherfucker.”

Monae’s definition of her sexuality led to a spike in an unlikely place: Merriam-Webster searches. As @MerriamWebster reported via Twitter:

Merriam-Webster’s tweet about searches for pansexuality (Twitter)

The dictionary reported that searches for “pansexual” rose 11,000% after the Rolling Stone interview. And that spike carried over into the next day:

Merriam-Webster’s tweet about the staying power of “pansexual” as a search term (Twitter)

Thank you QUEEN for dropping that knowledge!!

By The Numbers: Sexual Assault Statistics

Sexual Assault definition (Planned Parenthood Action Fund)

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and I couldn’t let the month pass without sharing some important statistics around sexual assault. They’re not the most fun stats, but they’re very important.

1 in 5 women will be raped within their lifetime.
51%+ of female rape victims were raped by an intimate partner.
1 in 71 men will be raped within their lifetime.
52%+ of male rape victims were raped by an acquaintance.
An estimated 17.7M women have been raped since 1998.
21% of trans college students have been sexually assaulted.
American Indians are twice as likely to experience sexual assault than other races.
49%+ of multiracial women will experience sexual assault in their lifetime.
Women and men with intellectual disabilities are seven times more likely to be the victims of sexual assaults than women and men without intellectual disabilities.
80.6K inmates in jails and prisons experience sexual violence.

#ThrowbackThursday: Sexual Assault Statistics, 2016

Sexual Assault graphic (The Daily Orange)

Syracuse University’s student newspaper The Daily Orange published this graphic two years ago to mark Sexual Assault Awareness Month. (That’s April, FYI.) The graphic brings awareness to data centered on sexual assaults on public and private college campuses.

A couple of these stats are especially chilling: 90% of victims do not report the sexual assault. And the victim knows the perpetrator in 80% of sexual assault cases.

So. Many. Problems. Here.

Princess Charlotte Makes History

Princess Charlotte (Mirror UK)

Everyone with a WiFi connection knows that the Duchess of Cambridge (a.k.a. the former Kate Middleton) had her baby yesterday. The birth of her new son also ensured that her daughter Charlotte has made history.

How? Princess Charlotte is the first princess in the Royal Family’s history not to lose her place in the line of succession to a younger brother.

In 2013, the Succession to the Crown Act was introduced, and allowed girl members of the Royal Family to keep their place in the line of succession even if a younger male member of the family was born. The act was implemented in 2015, and Princess Charlotte is the first royal girl to benefit from it.

Before the Act, female members of the family were frequently bumped down the line of succession in favor of their male brothers, even if the boys were younger. This started with Queen Victoria, whose second child, a boy, replaced her first child, a daughter, in the line of succession. Primogeniture (the official term for it) was very common up until…yesterday.

This is also exciting for another reason. As “The Lily” put it:

The updated law of succession, however, means that a future princess could one day be born to be queen.

!!!

By The Numbers: Women Who’ve Headlined Coachella

INDIO, CA – APRIL 14: Beyonce Knowles performs onstage during 2018 Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival Weekend 1 at the Empire Polo Field on April 14, 2018 in Indio, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella)

This post was originally published on January 19, 2017 and is being republished. It has been updated from the original.

The first weekend of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (also known as…Coachella) happened last weekend, and this weekend is part two. As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Beyonce headlines this year’s festival. She put out an epic set last weekend (watch it if you haven’t!!!)

Why is this significant? Beyonce is the first Black woman to headline Coachella!!

Coachella festivals (#): 19

Founded in 1999

Total female headliners (#): 3

Bjork headlined in 2002 and 2007.

Unique female headliners (#): 2

Bjork and Beyonce

Total female headliners (%): 2.17%

Unique female headliners (%): 1.45%

Main stage acts (approximate #): 138

*Source: Coachella Festival line-ups page on Wikipedia

#ThrowbackThursday: Beyonce and Solange at Coachella, 2014

Beyonce and Solange at Coachella, 2014 (Global Music Tribune)

This post was originally published on January 19, 2017. It has been updated from the original.

Solange (Beyonce’s younger sister and a talented artist in her own right) performed a set at Coachella in 2014. While singing “Losing You,” off her EP “True,” Beyonce joined her little sister onstage to dance to the song.

Solange returned the favor by joining Beyonce onstage for her elder sister’s historic headlining set at Coachella 2018.

Sex & Stats: Where Numbers Come to Bang

Statistics. Economics. Sex.